Our Class
This weekend I went to see the Drama Department's winter production of "Our Class: A History in XIV Lessons." Here's the description of the show from the Facebook event:
Come see the New England premiere of Tadeusz Slobodzianek's Our Class: A History in XIV Lessons, in a version by Ryan Craig, presented by the Tufts University Department of Drama and Dance.
An award-winning play first staged in London in 2009, Our Class confronts the horrors of the Holocaust through the lives of ten school friends, five Jewish and five Catholic, in an unnamed Polish town. It is meant to represent Jedwabne where hundreds of Jews were massacred - some sources says by the occupying Nazis, other allege by their Polish neighbors - on July 10, 1941.
The play opens in 1925 with the classmates singing and playing together in elementary school. Before it ends, eight decades later, their lives will be irrevocably altered, their childhood dreams destroyed. As the town is invaded first by the Soviet Union, then by Germany, they will be swept up in the the violence and trauma of war. There will be acts of betrayal, murder, rape, and revenge continuing into the communist and post-communist eras, haunting survivors and perpetrators alike.
By refusing to demonize his characters, playwright Slobodzianek forces us to consider the nature of human behavior in extreme situations. His unsentimental depiction moves beyond the notion of individual heroism and cowardice to a compelling exploration of collective guilt and moral responsibility.
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The production was incredibly done, profound and moving. I was so impressed by the dedication that was obviously put into the show by all the actors. They beautifully handled some incredibly difficult subjects and situations. The show wove song and movement into the scenes and really took advantage of their minimalistic set. Chairs were used to form different locations and actors wrote dates and important lines on chalkboards at the edge of the stage. It was a well designed and well executed addition to the production. I left the theater sad but thoughtful and very glad I got to see such an important work.
While I have a lot of thoughts on the production, I feel like I can't really do it justice in a blog post. If you can see it, DO! It's definitely worth it. You can find information about show times and tickets on the show's Facebook page. If you can't make it to this show, try to see another Tufts production! There is always great stuff going on around campus. Maybe I'll see you there!
